Path: news.ccsf.jp!tomockey.ddo.jp!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:39:06 -0600 From: The 2-Belo Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Now's our chance? Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:38:56 +0900 Distribution: To Hell And Back Content-Disposition: Nasty X-Meow: Meow X-Award: Hammer of Thor, 1999 (by Special Decree), promoted to Diamond, 2005 X-Title: Glorious All-Seeing All-Knowing Emperor for Life (Ret.) Approved: Meow Keywords: meow X-Face: )|A[V<1C$mU?EKAU*MwJn*U"vf+Dti9c`)yiWj4'>gh^?>2}OR)&RGPkN`HK~>1]K] X-Geek: GCM d-(++)@ s:(+) a C+++(++++)$ ULH+++$@>++++ P++(+++) L++(+++)$@ E--- !W++$@>-- N+++ !o K++>+++++ w$@>-- !O !M !V PS+ PE !Y PGP t++>+++$ !5 X--(-) !R- tv--? b++@ DI D+@ G++ e+ h-- r+++ y+++* X-Meow-Meow: Meow X-Meow-Meow-Meow: Meow X-Meow-Meow-Meow-Meow: Meow X-Meow-Meow-Meow-Meow-Meow: Meow Summary: Long live Meow, the Empire, and the Cabal. (TINMOEOC) Sender: TEH EMPERAR X-Memoriam-1: 209.233.135.233 (news.sexzilla.net) X-Memoriam-2: Douglas Mackall, 1958-1999 Organization: P05T n00Z, d00D Message-ID: References: <13s46nvmdl3flfd@news.supernews.com> <47c2187e$0$13870$8f2e0ebb@news.shared-secrets.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.92/32.572 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 56 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-LsGKCNKLbIpG2ahiyEM06memsQAUC8wQaooB3xs36ZTghvbcQXJNr99WUedy2plaGqYfm5/TaUMSu8I!am4Tdh//W34tPrF3XL23gBq+1LHls8Mn0LcGtE38P8p8XtgEq6VETMYjspOLqCGzTAd67X4= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.37 Xref: news.ccsf.jp fj.life.in-japan:166821 mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net totally sneezed all over fj.life.in-japan with a withering cloud of snot: >CL wrote: >> Kevin Wayne Williams wrote: >> > The 2-Belo wrote: >> >> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_on_re_as/japan_us_military_1 >> >> >> >> "The U.S. this week imposed tight new restrictions on troops, their >> >> families and >> >> *civilian expatriates* [emphasis mine] in Okinawa and *elsewhere* >> >> [emphasis >> >> mine], limiting them to bases, workplaces and off-base housing. The >> >> military >> >> held a 'day of reflection' Friday to urge troops not to commit crimes." >> >> >> > It's not clear in the article if these restrictions are temporary or >> > permanent. If they're permanent, I feel sorry for everyone involved. >> > Pretty boring being restricted to base. > >> If you've never been in the military, the difference between being >> restricted and unrestricted is that you get to be bored in English. >> Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot of difference. > >One thing I've never understood about the troops stationed overseas; why >don't they require foreign language lessons for them? An hour or so a >day, and at least you can make yourself understood after a few months. > >I've lost count of the number of people I've met who were stationed in >Japan but can't even speak the most rudimentary Japanese. I have precisely zero contact with the US military, so I can't speak for them, but I've met enough civilians who fit this description to say that this phenomenon is universal. And it has many causes, among them apathy and the environment they're in: If you don't need to speak the native language to get by day to day, then you likely won't. Many furriners live in enclosed communities amongst their own kind, or marry locals who can speak English anyway, and therefore never need to learn. I've known people who have lived here for a decade or more, and can't speak one lousy word, for the above reasons. -- The 2-Belo [the2beloATmsdDOTbiglobeDOTneDOTjp] Emperor, Meow (Retired, on generous military pension) afk-mn WebCenter: http://www.godhatesjanks.org/webcenter/ auk: Hammer of Thor by Special Decree 1999 (Upgraded to Diamond in 2005) aavf3: mhm21x20 "Today tragedy struck a very small town. The town's only parking lot caught fire and burned to the ground. The police chief had this to say: 'It was either one psychopath, full of hate... or a group of five psychopaths with 20 percent of the hate for each.'" -- John F. Stepp